The Rapture: Tapes

Anyone who first heard The Rapture via its

dance-rock crossover singles will be unsurprised that Tapes, the Brooklyn quartet's

first officially released mix-CD (bootlegs of DJ sets have floated around for

years) is more interesting as a time capsule of what hip urbanites were dancing

to in bars during the mid-'00s than as a DJ mix, per se. That isn't a bad

thing: These guys have excellent taste, and they construct an entertaining mélange

on Tapes,

moving from Ghostface Killah's action-fest "Daytona 500" to D.C. go-go giant

Junkyard Band without a second thought, while Martin Circus'

bubblegum-Kraftwerk "Disco Circus" goes head-to-head with Arcade Lover's "Fantasy

Lines" with real grace. The Rapture has a good line on current happenings as

well as the classics, throwing in recent club bangers like South African DJ

Mujava's "Township Funk" and "Everybody's Got To Make A Living" by house

producer Dances With White Girls (who's signed to a label The Rapture co-runs).

The mix doesn't have the kind of sonic arc that implies a narrative, the way

many great DJ mixes do—getting from A to B is less important here than

checking out the scenery along the way. But The Rapture knows the scenic

routes.